


Scrap Metal

by Coffie_Buzz



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Automatonophobia (Fear of Animatronics), Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mike is Not the Bad Guy, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Trauma, fnaf au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:14:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffie_Buzz/pseuds/Coffie_Buzz
Summary: The girl set the screw and screwdriver down on the stage, “Could i maybe see this guy so I know what I’ll be dealing with?”Mike rapidly shook his head, “No, absolutely not. Not yet, anyways. His A.I perceives everything as a threat at this point. He may be an old model but he’s just as capable as these guys,” he gestured to Freddy and the others, “It learns and bases reactions and responses from it’s experiences. This thing has gone through thirteen years of trauma and neglect,” Mike’s voice was firm, “It’s taken me almost six months just to be able to stand in the doorway without him lunging at me,”Mike stepped closer and looked at the girl with the most serious face she had seen on him so far. He looked scared and strict all at once and his voice was so absolute it sent a chill down her back,“Never go into Parts and Service. Not until we tell you it’s safe. If you stepped into that back room now, he would kill you.”
Relationships: Bonnie/Freddy Fazbear, Funtime Freddy (Five Nights at Freddy's)/Original Character(s), Funtime Freddy/Springtrap, Springtrap (Five Nights at Freddy's)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 82





	1. First Night

**Author's Note:**

> This has been years in the making, holy crap. 
> 
> Before you read, be aware that its is an AU! It's not hugely different, but it's set in a time period where Animatronics and robotics are more common and advanced. I'm currently working on a "Player Map" for the establishment, as well, so you can get a better sense of how the building and rooms are layed out. Once that's done, I'll be sure to post it in the Notes :) 
> 
> This WILL have some smut in it BUT LATER o3o character development first and all that. For now, the rating will stay Mature. Tags will be updated as we go along.

It was dark and quiet. Colorful string lights sparkled cheerily and the faintest of laughter could be heard every so often from the apartments and little town houses. 

A light snow fell softly as a plow truck rumbled noisily past a young woman as she walked along the otherwise vacant sidewalk. The scene was calm and pleasant, soothingly peaceful. 

If one was to look upon the woman, she would appear no more than average, albeit, still rather pretty for the category. She stood at the average height of five feet, eight inches with a fit build and healthy weight. Her line of work required heavy lifting and the stress it came with was one hell of a weight-loss program. 

Her average hair, which was naturally long and wavy, was a dark chocolate brown and gave a pleasant red shimmer in the sun.

Her eyes were a different story entirely. While they were both a lovely blue, they also had a starburst of brown encircling the pupils. Sectoral Heterochromia, the doctors had said. A random genetic anomaly that affects only one percent of the total human population. 

It had gotten her years of ridicule and bullying from her peers when she was younger, but now that she was older, she had grown used to the confused or amazed looks people would give her. Questions that she had been asked over and over again were easily answered with a dismissive lie, "They are just colored contacts." 

The conversations would resume like normal after that. No reason to pay attention if the eye color was fake. 

The girl breathed a deep sigh as she fluffed her scarf to increase its coverage and keep her warmer. Her walk continued in peaceful silence for a few more minutes. It wasn't long before her destination was in sight. 

It was a new building, having been built on what used to be a large vacant lot earlier in the year. Beneath the snow the dusty gravel and weeds were now covered with a smooth concrete parking lot. The building wasn't completely done, its construction having been put on hold for the winter, but it was sound with heat, running water and electricity. 

She looked up at the dark neon sign and gave it a fond smile.

' **Fazbear's Family Diner and Arcade** '

As she walked up the steps to the front door, she stalled to knock the snow from her boots and brush herself free of any remaining flakes. She punched in the pass code she had been given the day she had been hired. 

Looking down the dark hall once she re-locked the door, she could see a light on in the office to the left. The building wasn't completely dark, mind you, there were still a few wall lamps lit.

She knocked quietly on the door before peeking in. The space was lit by a single lamp in the far right corner of the room. Three black filing cabinets took up the gap to the left. 

The desk in the middle was made of dark wood and supported an expensive laptop. This laptop was currently being used by a man in his mid-forties, with greying hair at his temples and a well-kept goatee. When the girl peeked in he looked up from his work, giving her a warm smile, 

"Hello there!" He greeted, getting up from his desk and joining her in the hall, "I don't think we've formally met. The name's Mike, I'm the night manager, which would be why we didn't see each other when you were hired." He told the girl, extending a hand for her to shake.

The girl returned his warm smile, taking his hand, "I'm Kira Stone. Nice to meet you, Mike." 

With his free hand, Mike gestured for Kira to follow, "Let's get you situated, shall we?" 

The hall split to the left and right and was headed by a pair of rather large bathrooms. Mike led her down the left hall. This one was much wider and had bare, unpainted drywall. Kira took a moment to register that all the doorways in this hall, three on the right and two on the left, were unnecessarily big. In both height and width. It was at this point that she noticed the ceiling was higher as well. 

Mike stopped at the first open doorway on the right and flicked on the light. It was a rather large room for it having only a desk and possibly a dozen filing cabinets. Mike cleared his throat,

"This is our Records room. We mostly use it to keep track of company assets and expenses. Everything the company owns, _has_ owned or anyone they have hired in the past or present is kept on record in-house for convenience. Just in case we need an employee’s emergency information or an asset's profile." The man explained, "Any and all history regarding an asset, mechanical or otherwise, is in these files. With that said, feel free to snoop in those files, but _only_ the ones pertaining to an asset." The last sentence was said with a hint of sterness, Mike even going as far as to make eye contact. 

Kira nodded in understanding and the two continued after the light was switched off again. The next door beside the Records room was even larger. Two swinging doors opened into a spacious kitchen. Even in the dim lighting Kira could tell that every single surface was spotless and well organized. She was pleasantly surprised to see a red brick pizza oven built into the far right corner. Judging by the orderly bundles of firewood sitting next to it and the distinct lack of ash or charcoal, the oven had yet to see any use. Mike gave a light smile, 

“This is our staff kitchen. We will have a day chef cook for us from noon ‘till close once we open but otherwise, this is where staff will eat their meals and retrieve food for customers. It’s not quite finished yet either, but so far so good.” 

Kira chuckled a bit, “I can’t wait to see this place once it’s done!” she told him.

He gave a short bark of a laugh, “Hah! Well, in order for us to even be remotely close to that, we’ll need all our assets running smoothly,” he backed out of the doorway, letting the doors swing shut again. 

He glanced down the rest of the hall, giving it a thoughtful look before mumbling something about what time it was and then looking at the watch on his left wrist, “Well, Miss Stone, looks like the rest of the tour will have to be postponed. It’s nearly three A.M and your shift is about to start.” 

Kira gave him a bright smile as Mike led her back the way they had come, only this time they continued to walk straight down the other end of the hall. The first doorway on their right was missing the door altogether but it was just as tall and wide as the others. The room was huge and was without a doubt where the dining room would be. This one had lovely stone tile floors with eggshell white walls. Clearly most of the attention had been here since it looked the most ‘done’ out of what Kira had seen of the entire building. What got her excited was the large wooden stage centered in the middle of the farthest wall to her left. As well as the Animatronic characters that stood motionless on top of it. 

There was another, separate stage to her immediate right, this one built into the corner and set up to look like the deck of a pirate ship. This stage only had one Animatronic and Kira visibly winced when she saw it’s poor condition. 

Mike sighed, nodding in agreement, “Yeah. They’ve all got so many problems the company doesn’t even know where to start,” he explained before pointing to the Animatronic on the pirate stage, “Foxy there was found in some salvage yard. They were using him to hold up an advertisement sign,” he then gestured to the other three on the far left stage, “Freddy, Chica and Bonnie were luckily bought straight out of auction but the company left them sitting in the warehouse for so long that we’re pretty sure half their parts fell off when they moved them here. Rust was everywhere. I think one kid had to get a tetanus shot after he accidentally cut himself on Bonnie’s arm.” 

Kira grimmiced, nodding as she approached the main stage, “Yeah, that looks like that would be a thing.” 

Bonnie’s right arm was missing most of its costume padding, leaving the metal skeleton and any support rods exposed to the elements. The same could be said for the entire left leg, the left shoulder and pretty much the entire front torso from the chest down. He was also missing an ear. 

Freddy and Chica weren't nearly as bad, but were still rough to look at. The bear’s left arm hung limply by his side, several wires of various colors dangled off of the shoulder. They looked like they had been pulled and partially removed from the plush suit and the ends were frayed. More wires were seen jutting out from nearly every gap possible and the costume suit was either torn or just plain missing in several places. 

The chicken was in the best condition. The only thing Kira could notice just by looking was that her right arm… was probably not supposed to be facing the wrong way. It looked like it had been twisted at the shoulder joint and then flipped to face the opposite direction. Kira could only imagine the mess of tangled wires that had caused. 

Mike hadn't been kidding about the rust though. There was a layer of orange dust on the stage beneath each of them, Bonnie having the most due to his lack of covered areas. 

Mike sighed softly, “Well, I’ll let you get to work then. There is a tool box under the stage and you’re welcome to it. Just be sure to put everything back when you’re done. Your shift ends at eleven. I’ll come get you when it’s time to head out,” he said with a kind smile, “No one is expecting miracles, Kira. The company knows how badly these guys have it. We have enough funding to survive for the next year. Just do your best, that’s all we ask. I’m in my office if you need anything.” 

With that, Mike waved and walked out. Kira felt a bit relieved at Mike’s words. It was nice knowing that there was no colossal pressure. She looked up at the three Animatronics before her and smirked, 

“Yeah, well guess what Mike. Mechanics and Robotic Engineering are what I have a Master’s Degree in,” she mumbled, walking over to a set of switches on the wall by the stage and flicking all of them on. The lights to both stages flashed on as did a few lining the wall. She ducked under the stage and pulled out a red tool box, setting it on the stage by Bonnie’s foot. Kira climbed up and looked over Freddy as she opened the box, grabbing needle-nose pliers and a roll of black electrical tape, “Let’s start with you. It’s your name on the building after all.” she said. Talking to herself was always a habit of hers. There were times where she could practically hear a studio audience laughing at her in the background. It entertained her while she worked and was no doubt entertaining for anyone who happened to be listening. Win-Win. 

Kira removed her scarf and jacket, throwing them off stage and pulled her long hair back into a ponytail which she tied with a scrunchie she kept around her wrist. She decided to keep her leather gloves on, just in case the wires were still live. Random power surges from supposedly dead electronics could still happen if the battery or engine was still connected. 

She set to work with removing the rest of the costume from the bear’s limp arm. Now that she was closer, the smell of moldy fabric and rust was enough to make her wrinkle her nose. She groaned a little in disgust when a few drops of orange tinted water landed on the stage after she grabbed a chunk of foam padding on Freddy’s lower arm, “Jesus, did they have you guys sitting in a leaky basement before they brought you here?” she wondered out loud while continuing. There was a brief sound from the back of the room behind her and she turned her head to look over her shoulder, expecting to see Mike. But no one was there. At first, Kira dismissed the sound as nothing. The building wasn’t finished yet and it was probably just some board shifting and gravity do be like that sometimes. 

Mentally shrugging, she turned back, finally ridding the bear’s arm of soggy, nasty fabric and foam. She had only just reached around to grab the dangling wires when she heard the sound again. She spun around to face the open and empty dining room. The stage lights from the two stages lent quite a bit of visibility. They lit the room about half way before they faded into a shadow near the middle. The only solid dark place was around the corner and out the doorway. 

But that wasn’t where the sound had been coming from. There had been no mistaking it that time. The sound had been the shift of metal. Kira’s eyes were set firmly on Foxy. When she had walked in, all of the Animatronics had been ‘relaxed’, heads bowed and eyes trained on some far-off point in the floor. 

Foxy’s head was up, slightly tilted to one side like a curious child. Eyes that once held false lenses but were now only blackened voids appeared to be staring right at her. His right foot, which was skeletal and without costume padding, now rested mere inches from the edge of the Pirate stage. 

Kira stared, wide-eyed and stiff while silently mouthing “What the Fuck?”. She remained like that for a moment longer before slowly turning back to continue with Freddy’s arm. She felt a chill run down her back and the creeping feeling of being watched washed over her once her back was fully turned. She wasn’t sure why her brain urged her to look at the other Animatronics she was currently sharing the stage with, but when she did she felt her heartbeat stagger for a second and dropped the wires she had been holding onto. Kira held in the sound that pushed at the back of her throat and quickly sidestepped to the left of the stage, away from Freddy, Bonnie and Chica. 

All three had their heads up and if she had to guess, their eyes were trained directly onto Foxy. Kira’s eyes flicked from the three on stage to Foxy across the room. She was both confused and a bit startled. With all the things wrong with them, even something as simple as lifting their heads shouldn’t be possible without some sort of noise. Foxy had even taken a few steps. That alone should have been impossible. 

Kira looked back to Freddy and opened her mouth, “Mike!” she called, her voice echoing around the empty room. There was movement in the corner of her eye and she watched as Foxy took a very slow step back from his stage’s edge. Her eyes widened and she pointed at the fox, “Okay, _that_ I saw!” she told the Animatronic as if she had just won a game of red light-green light. 

Mike walked in moments after, “What’s up?” he asked, slightly concerned. Kira looked over to him, still pointing at Foxy but then gestured to all four of them, “Are they supposed to be moving?” she asked. 

She could see Mike purse his lips as he tried to hold back a laugh. He nodded, “Right, sorry I didn’t tell you. That’s kind of a Rite of Passage type of thing. Yes, they are supposed to move. They have a very advanced learning A.I that responds to sight and sound. I’m amazed Foxy wasn’t salvaged for sell-able parts, honestly,” he explained with a mirthful glint in his blue eyes. He pointed to Foxy, “He tried to leave the stage?” it was asked like he already knew the answer. 

Kira ran her hands down her face laughing to herself, “Yes he did and it scared the hell outta me,” she said looking at her manager with a relieved smile, “Tell him to stop.” 

Mike laughed, “His A.I didn’t recognise you, so he probably wanted to get a closer look. But if you want him to stop, just tell him so. Their A.I understands spoken commands.” 

Kira laughed a bit and looked over to Foxy, “Stay.” she ordered between giggles. This earned another hearty laugh from Mike and then, after asking if Kira needed anything else and the answer being ‘no’, returned to his office. 

Kira shook her head, laughing at herself and returning to Freddy’s side. The three Animatronics on stage were still looking at Foxy, but thankfully the pirate fox was doing as Kira had instructed. He hadn’t moved an inch and it made her feel more comfortable that the Command Protocol for their A.I was still functional. 

She took hold of the set of dangling wires again, feeding each one back into the correct guidance lines along the bear’s arm. She was glad that the manufacturer had color-coded each one or else this otherwise simple job would have been that much more difficult. There was nothing quite like re-wiring an electronic then finding out that you had messed up somewhere near the beginning. 

As she connected the final wire there was a brief yet startling flash from the contact point. Kira ripped her gloved hand away and flinched. Looking down at her right hand, she could see that there was now a tiny, burnt hole in the pointer finger. Kira huffed a short chuckle, picking up the roll of electrical tape and covering the exposed copper wires, “Well that was dramatic,” she commented quietly, “Guess that’s one way to find out your A.I doesn’t have an independent power source.” 

Most A.I based robotics now-a-days ran on two different power sources. A smaller one for the A.I and a larger one for the body. It was a way for the A.I to remain active while the body wasn’t. Like a semi-sleep mode. The A.I was responsible for “waking up” the body if an order was given. It was similar to laying in bed while wide awake. 

Kira glanced up at Freddy and was startled for a brief moment. Freddy was no longer looking at Foxy, though his head was still aimed towards the other stage. The bear’s blue eyes were looking down at her, unblinking. 

Forgetting about Freddy’s active A.I was easy when you couldn’t hear him moving his eyes. Instead, Kira opted to humor the bear. It gave her someone other than herself to talk to, even if the A.I only understood basic commands, “Not bad for a patch job. What do you think?” she asked. She knew she wouldn’t get a reply, but she was more than aware of Freddy’s eyes angling down from her face to look at his arm. He stared at it for a moment before looking back at her. 

Kirra nodded, “I’ll take that as approval,” 

She walked around to the bear’s back and grimaced when she saw that the entire back of his head was void of costume and horribly rusted. Regardless, she was still able to locate the small switch at the base of his metal skull that would manually activate the body’s power module. She flicked it to ‘On’ and Freddy’s posture straightened. The bear was big, nearly seven feet tall. 

Kira walked back around to stand in front of the bear and both his eyes and his head followed her movements, albeit, with a slight delay. She stared at the floor with raised eyebrows as more rust fell at Freddy’s feet with every small movement he made. Leaning in closer to his torso, she could hear a very unhealthy metallic clicking, like a part not moving to where it should be. 

Straightening, she looked back up at the bear, taking a few steps to the left, then the right. Freddy’s head and eyes followed her the entire time. Kira rolled her shoulders back in exaggerated movements, watching as Freddy attempted to do the same, only much stiffer. He only managed to get halfway before a flash of sparks rained down from his right shoulder joint. 

Kira froze, waiting for the A.I to figure out that the action couldn’t be replicated and stop trying. It took possibly ten seconds. That was shockingly fast for something so… “shitty” was the word that came to mind, 

“Alright, well, it looks like your Shadowing function works just fine. Lift your right arm.” she ordered. There was a pause and for a long moment she thought that the arm wasn’t working. Kira was about to see if a wire had been pulled by accident when the right arm lifted, the fingers on the hand flexing open and closed. Kira beamed, “Oh, hell yeah!” 

There was motion to her right and she noticed Bonnie and Chica turn their heads to look at Freddy’s now functional arm. Kira didn’t think much of the movements anymore, now that she knew it was all A.I. What she did care about was the loud, heavy thuds behind her and the shriek of rusty metal parts. Alarms sounded in her head and she spun around, backing into Freddy’s chest as she did so. Foxy was now halfway across the dining room, his movements halting when Kira looked at him,

“Bitch, I told you to _stay_ !” she shouted, startled by the fact that the Animatronic could move so fast and that it had technically been running at _her_ , “You running at people is gonna give someone a heart attack, my dude. It is absolutely, one-hundred percent _not_ Gucci. Quit it.” 

There was a howl of laughter from the doorway and she turned to see Mike nearly doubled over with laughter, “I have never in my life heard that reaction!” he hollered as he struggled to take in air between laughs. Laughter was an infectious thing so it wasn’t even five seconds later that Kira started laughing as well. 

When the two of them had calmed down, Mike made his way over to the stage Kira was standing on. Smiling, he looked up at her, “I see you managed to get Freddy’s arm working again. The last mechanic we brought in got so frustrated with it that he tore the cables out.”

Kira shook her head as she moved away from the bear to try and work on Bonnie as the two talked, "Bet that went over well with the company." 

Mike scoffed, "Yeah, 'bout as well as a tornado in a city. I've never seen them sue someone for property damage so fast." 

The girl glanced at Mike as she used a brass brush to remove a thick layer of rust from a screw on Bonnie's left shoulder, "So you've been with the company for a while?"

Mike smiled and straightened his posture a bit, "Yeah, been here since I was twenty-five. I used to be the night guard but they changed me to day shift after some nasty accident. After I had been here a bit longer I asked to work nights again. They saw that I was a good fit so they promoted me." 

The way Mike talked about his job with a smile and a sparkle to his eyes reminded Kira of how she looked when she talked about robotics. He loved his job and it showed. 

Then a thought struck her. Peeking around the blue rabbit's arm, Kira frowned, "Is there any other night staff or is it just us?" 

Mike made a wide gesture to the room, "We're it. They count as staff too, as far as I'm concerned," he said, referring to the Animatronics as well, "We were supposed to get a Night Guard too, but we recently recovered an asset that's going to fill that position." 

Kira 'ooo'd, "What kind?" she asked, hyped for another project. 

Mike scratched at his jaw, "It's another Bonnie character. This one's super old-school though. Analog clockwork. I'm not sure but I think it might also run on self-supplied hydraulics," he tapped the center of his sternum, "There's a brass water tank in it's chest." 

Kira stared at Mike wide-eyed, "Are you shitting me?" 

The words left her mouth before she had a chance to stop them and she immediately slapped a hand over her mouth, face turning beet red, “Sorry! No swearing at work! I’ll never do it again!”

An amused look overcame Mike's face and his eyes darted to Freddy and back to the girl, “I personally don’t mind the swearing so long as you don’t get carried away…” he trailed off, looking at the bear again. Kira followed his gaze, seeing Freddy’s head now turned to look at her. The lids to his eyes had dropped a touch, lending him the illusion of a narrowed eye expression. 

“But that big guy _does_ mind,” Mike continued, “Though since it’s your first night, I think he can find it in his heart to let it slide this time.” it was said as a suggestion rather than a joke and Kira found herself thinking it was a bit odd. Mike had kept his eyes on the bear as he had been speaking, leading her to believe that the last sentence had been directed at Freddy specifically. 

Kira watched as Freddy slowly straightened, another, much smaller and less dramatic shower of sparks cascaded from some unseeable point in his back. His expression returned to what Kira now recognised as ‘neutral’ and he gave her a single, slow nod. 

Mike cleared his throat, “Anyways. Yes, I’m serious about the other guy. You're gonna have a hell of a time fixing him though. We cleaned him up as best as we could after the police were done with him-” 

Kira waved her hands, silencing Mike, “Wait wait wait, the _Police_?!” 

He pursed his lips, “Yeah. This guy was bought out of auction after one of the company’s old carnival establishments burnt down thirteen years ago. The guy who had bought him wasn’t all that stable upstairs,” Mike tapped the side of his head, “He welded a bear trap to the top and bottom jaws and somehow re-established the old Spring Locks.” he explained, hooking his thumbs into the belt loops of his dark denim pants and glancing at Foxy for a brief moment,

“He was originally meant to be a hybrid suit. The parts would be able to be pulled against the sides of the suit and a person would be able to wear him like a costume. They never actually _did_ that because it proved to be too risky. The Spring Lock mechanisms that would have held the parts to the sides of the frame were left unlocked and the key insert on the back that would have wound them up was welded over,” 

Mike sighed and bowed his head, “The guy who had bought him from auction wanted to try out the suit idea. Guess he must have heard of it from somewhere. The old, rusty Spring Locks failed and the suit crushed him to death.” 

Kira felt all the colour drain from her face. If the suit was as old as Mike said and ran on hydraulics, then it would have likely been constructed of Bronze, Copper and Steel. Freddy was just some electrical engine parts, a metal frame and skeleton with a costume but even she could tell that he probably weighed something close to three-hundred pounds. She could only imagine how heavy the older model had weighed. 

The girl set the screw and screwdriver down on the stage, “Could i maybe see this guy so I know what I’ll be dealing with?” 

Mike rapidly shook his head, “No, absolutely not. Not yet, anyways. His A.I perceives everything as a threat at this point. He may be an old model but he’s just as capable as these guys,” he gestured to Freddy and the others, “It learns and bases reactions and responses from it’s experiences. This thing has gone through thirteen years of trauma and neglect,” Mike’s voice was firm, “It’s taken me almost six months just to be able to stand in the doorway without him lunging at me,”

Mike stepped closer and looked at the girl with the most serious face she had seen on him so far. He looked scared and strict all at once and his voice was so absolute it sent a chill down her back, 

“Never go into Parts and Service. Not until we tell you it’s safe. If you stepped into that back room now, he would kill you.” 

Kira quickly nodded, but kept her protest to herself. ‘ _I don’t think that’s true, Mike,_ ’ she thought, ‘ _He probably wouldn’t kill me..._ ’ 

She watched as Mike climbed up the stage to get a better look at Freddy’s arm. Kira returned to Bonnie’s side, removing a support panel, 

  
‘ _Because he’s already saved me._ ’


	2. Technical Difficulties

Kira groaned as she stretched her arms over her head. 

Bonnie was proving to be difficult to fix. His endoskeleton and most of his wiring was so badly corroded that not even her father, a veteran Robotics technician, could fix that mess. Mike had gone back to his office after his warning. Despite the tone of voice the older man had used, she couldn’t help the urge she felt to just go into Parts and Service anyways. 

She needed a distraction and Bonnie was nearly giving her an aneurism.

Looking to her left, she saw that Foxy was still standing motionless in the middle of the dining room, black eyes staring at the ground. 

Kira frowned slightly and peered down to see what it was the fox was looking at. Her brows shot up and she squeaked, “Yeah, no.  _ Hell _ no. You can deal with that hell spawn yourself, Foxy.” 

A large, black spider was crawling towards the Animatronic’s foot, possibly trying to find a nice place to hide. Foxy took a single step back, yet the spider stayed course and kept on skittering towards him. Kira watched as Foxy’s ears pivoted backwards and tilted towards the back of his head via tracks in his frame. There was a loud, metallic _ thud _ as Foxy took a step and brought his foot down on top of the spider, effectively squishing it. 

Kira snorted out of her nose and placed a hand over her mouth in an attempt to hold back her giggles, “Great, well there goes our YouTube monetization,” she joked in a deadpan tone, “I swear, if spiders start flying, I’m leaving this planet.” 

Foxy looked up at her and a brief, garbled mess of rough static was emitted from his chest. Kira’s humor quickly switched to fascination, “Hey, I didn’t know you guys had audio!” 

She looked back at Bonnie, “I’ll deal with you in a sec, right now I need to see if I can fix his speakers. For my sanity.” she told him. She didn’t want his A.I thinking that she was abandoning him, afterall. Bonnie didn’t react, nor did any of the others. Kira hopped off the stage and walked over to where Foxy stood. Despite the sparse lighting she could still make out most of his parts.

His chest cavity was basically just one huge pile of rusty metal. Fortunately, the lack of coverage made it easy to locate the speaker perfectly centered inside his frame. It was a small speaker, about the size of an apple and it sat at the bottom of his neck. Roughly the same spot as the collarbone on a human. 

It had some corrosion damage, but that didn’t surprise her. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she turned on the flashlight function, taking a quick look at the time as she did so. It was almost eight A.M.

Kira angled the light, trying to get a better look at the damage. There wasn’t much to fix, if she was being honest. She could see two pulled wires at the back of the contraption, but that was pretty much it. 

There were two small holes that the wires fed into and a tab attached to each one that could be closed to lock the wires in place. Kira gave a short, pitched hum, “Huh! Just like a normal speaker then!” 

She turned her phone around, about to turn the app off when the ray of light flashed across Foxy’s face. The Animatronic jerked back, turning his head away and raising his arms to shield his face. It wasn’t a fluid motion by a long shot and the garbled static was heard again for a moment before being abruptly cut off. 

Kira practically flung herself backwards, reflexively raising her arms as well. That wasn’t what she had expected to be a thing. Both herself and Foxy seemed to recover at the same time, the two straightening and lowering their arms. There was a shrill metallic scrape from behind her and Kira’s head turned just in time to watch Bonnie slide a single foot forward on the stage. She quickly reached the conclusion that it was intended to be a  _ step _ rather than a slide, but one could only do so much movement while covered in layers of rust. 

‘ _ Okay, so Bonnie still somehow has active mobility. Good to know. _ ’

Kira turned back to Foxy, holding up her hands in a placating manner, “Sorry?” she offered, then immediately questioned why she felt compelled to apologize to a robot. Advanced A.I aside, it was still just a machine. 

The fox turned his head to look at her, both ears twitching in a simulated ‘ear perk’. The eyes to the Animatronic were no longer darkened voids and Kira raised her brows in slight astonishment. The center of each eye was now filled with a single dot of amber LED light, however, occasionally the right eye-light would flicker as if damaged. The fox tilted his head to the side, keeping his eyes on her. 

It was at this moment that Kira felt genuinely visible. There was being _ looked at _ , then there was being  _ seen _ . This was definitely one of those ‘being seen’ moments. For an unpleasant second, Kira felt like she was being  _ hunted _ . She only calmed down slightly when the fox gave her a single nod. 

She took a hesitant step closer, followed by another when Foxy didn’t react. She went back to work on his voice box, turning her phone’s light back on but making sure to keep the beam away from Foxy’s face this time. Her hands were moving slower and she found herself paying more attention to the small micro-movements Foxy made rather than what she was doing. Over and over, her head kept repeating the same thing, ‘ _ Don’t trust that. _ ’ 

Kira was so distracted that she didn't have time to see the piece of sharp metal just beneath her right wrist. Dropping her phone, she wrenched herself away from Foxy, clasping a hand around the injury. A string of F-Bombs left her mouth in record time and she quickly made her way to the door to get Mike. Blood ran slowly between her gloved fingers and dripped onto the tile floor.

As she speed-walked, she heard a mass of metallic grinding and a particularly loud _bang_. She ignored it, caring more for her cut wrist than what was happening behind her.

She turned out the doorway, down the hall and pushed Mike's ajar office door open with her foot, "Hey Mike, you got a First Aid kit?" 

He looked up from his writing and was out of his chair in a flash once he saw the blood, "Yeah, c'mon." He urged, leading her back down the left hall to the door at the very end on the right. 

It was full of arcade games and couches. There was even a futon bed set up in front of a small projection screen off to the side. 

To the right was a prize counter and Kira yelped in surprise when she saw the Marionette-type Animatronic currently putting toys on the shelves behind the glass case. The sound appeared to have startled it because it flinched and dropped the plush Chica doll it had been about to put away. 

Mike held his hand out to the robot, "First Aid kit please, Liz." He said urgently.

The Animatronic hesitated for a brief moment before immediately doing as asked, reaching into a cupboard within the case and handing the kit to him. It tilted it’s head the same way Foxy had, bright white LED eyes trained on Kira’s wrist as she removed her hand so Mike could wrap it. It’s permanent smile was disturbing in this scenario and the Animatronic as a whole looked like it was in perfect condition. 

But Mike had called it ‘Liz’. Character name, maybe? She definitely didn’t remember that one being on the company’s Character Roster, however, she recognised the model. This one was designed to run the prize counter and act as a chaperone for the kids who came for the arcade games. 

Kira watched in amazement as it grabbed a small whiteboard and began to write on it with the most fluid movements she had ever seen. She was floored when the Marionette turned the board around. The penmanship was lovely, elegant and looked practiced. It was a question, 

_ -What Happened?-  _

Mike glanced over, reading the question for a moment before refocusing on Kira’s wrist, “She cut it.” was his blunt answer. 

The Marionette’s smile fell into a straight line and the shoulders slouched a bit. The deadpan look it was giving Mike was almost funny. The board turned away and there was more writing for another few seconds before it was turned back, 

_ -I can see that. On Who?- _

Mike stalled at the question and Kira was left wondering how The Marionette knew she had cut herself on someONE, not someTHING. Mike looked up at her, waiting for the answer. Kira stamered for a beat before finding her words past her shock, “U-um, Foxy,” she told them, “I was trying to fix his speaker.” 

Both Mike and the Marionette nodded in understanding. There was more writing, 

_ -I’m sure he appreciated the effort. Though, he probably feels bad about the cut.-  _

This conversation was becoming very cognitive for the other half being a robot. Kira had half a mind to assume there was actually a person inside the Marionette. The only thing telling her that wasn't true was the fact that this thing was way too thin. No human could be that thin and be healthy enough to stand, let alone move. 

Mike interrupted just as Kira opened her mouth to reply, "So, did you make any headway on Bonnie?" 

Kira blinked, "Uh, no, not really," she said sheepishly, "His endoskeleton is beyond salvageable. I was actually going to ask you what the company's budget is regarding their repairs." 

The Marionette scribbled quickly before Mike could answer, 

_ -There isn't one.- _

Kira stared at the words, confused.

"One of the Co-Founders of the company recently passed away. As per his will, his shares in the company, as well as some of his own money, are going towards the construction of this place and any repairs or additional assets we require." Mike clarified as he finished dressing the cut on Kira's wrist.

"Oh," She said dumbly, "Well, in that case, Bonnie, Freddy and Foxy definitely need replacement parts. Chica looks fine from what I can tell, though her backwards arm worries me." 

Kira took her now destroyed gloves off as Mike handed the First Aid kit back to the Marionette, thanking it, "Alright, just make a list and I'll fax it to the higher ups," he said with a more cheerful tone, "Right now we need you to fill out an incident report." 

The girl flicked her eyes to the Marionette as Mike passed her and left the room. The Animatronic gently placed a hand over her shoulder and Kira could feel the light hum of electricity beneath the fabric. It felt alive.

The whiteboard was turned to her with some new writing, 

_ -It was nice to meet you, Kira. Don't worry, Mike will explain when he knows he can trust you. Just remember to keep an open mind.- _

An ominous air seemed to fill the room and the Marionette removed it's hand from her shoulder, returning to its task of putting away toys. Kira felt uneasy as she headed to Mike's office. 

Mike had never said her name when they were in the arcade room. How did it know who she was? Also, what did it mean by ‘ _ Mike will explain _ ’? Explain what? Explain why everything seemed to be taking an odder turn the longer she was here? 

She hurriedly turned the corner and entered the office. Mike was ruffling through the drawers, looking for something and even occasionally patting his pockets. Kira arched an eyebrow, “Lose something?” she asked. 

Mike let out a deep sigh, “I hope not. I can’t find my wallet. I think it might still be in my car,” he looked over to her, “You have yours, right?” 

Kira wondered why he was asking when she remembered that her medical card was needed for an incident report, “Ah, no. It’s still in the dining room with my jacket.” 

Mike threw his own jacket on, “Alright, well, why don’t you go grab that while I go see if I left my wallet in my car.” 

The girl nodded, “Okay.” 

They parted ways after that and Kira noticed the occasional drop of blood as she walked down the hall to the dining room. She made a mental note to clean up the mess after the report was filled out. Stepping into the dining room, she noticed that Foxy was still in the same spot. Though his eyes had gone dark, he still stared straight ahead. Creepy. 

Kira didn’t even make it past the bar when she stopped in her tracks, her boots making a squeak as she did so. 

Bonnie wasn’t on stage anymore. 

In fact it didn’t even look like Bonnie was in the room at all. She recalled the loud crash she had heard before running to get Mike. Had that been the rabbit leaving the stage?

Her head spun, looking all around her to see if she could spot the large Animatronic. Bonnie was easily the same size as Freddy, albeit, with a shorter, one inch difference on Bonnie’s end. Ears excluded. She began to back up, ready to leave the dining room again and tell Mike. 

As she passed the bar, the darkest point in the room, a set of LED lights, magenta in color, blinded her left peripheral vision. She flinched away from the sudden flash, covering her ears seconds later when a shrill squeal of metal on metal invaded her ears. Kira looked over just in time to see Bonnie  _ walking _ of all things, and he seemed set on walking towards _her_. His hand was reaching out like he was going to try and grab her. 

The garbled mess of static noise was heard from across the room. Her eyes flicked to catch a glimpse of Foxy’s amber eyes. Then she heard the rapid metallic steps. 

Panic shot through her, ‘ _ Run! _ ’ 

Kira turned and bolted, Bonnie’s hand missing by mere inches. Taking a right out of the doorway, she could still hear Foxy behind her and it sounded like he was getting closer. The closest door was the one to her left and she could do nothing but pray it wasn’t locked. 

She grabbed the knob and twisted. The door flew open, the momentum rudely depositing her onto a concrete floor. Rolling over, Kira kicked the door closed with the heel of her foot, reveling in the solid _bang_ it made. She heard Foxy literally screech to a halt but didn’t hear any steps that would mean he had walked away. 

The room was completely dark. Kira stood slowly, shaking hands outstretched towards the door in hopes of finding a light switch. There was one, but when she flicked it, no light shone. The bulb was either dead or missing. Taking a deep breath, Kira rested her forehead against the metal door. She could feel her heartbeat hammering against her rib cage and only then did she notice just how genuinely terrified she was. 

‘ _ Guess I’m still not over that fear, then. _ ’ she thought. 

She heard Mike call her name from some distant place in the establishment. She held her breath as she heard the scraping sound of Foxy leaving. She didn’t call out, afraid that doing so would draw him back. 

Then she heard Mike talking to someone in a hushed tone. She strained to make out what he was saying, 

“Oh, what the hell! C’mon Foxy, we talked about this!” she heard him sigh, “You even got Bonnie involved! I know she cut herself, but I’m the  _ Manager _ , I can handle things like that,” 

There was a pause. 

“I bet you just stood there and _ let him _ leave the stage, didn’t you? I have half a mind to take that hat of yours and Frisbee it across the room and laugh as I watch you try and get it. God knows that if stairs are your enemy, then a stage is a threat to your very existence.” 

Another length of silence and, even from the distance, Kira could feel the stress emanating off of Mike, “Alright, both of you back on your stages. I’ll go find her-… You need help, don’t you. Well then why the hell did you jump down if you knew you couldn’t get back up again!?” she heard the jingle of keys, “Hang on, I’ll quickly grab the lift.” 

There was a long moment where there was only silence and the sound of her own shaky breathing. Then she heard a solid, metallic step directly behind her. It sounded firm yet hollow at the same time and was followed by a faint, brief hiss. It reminded her of an air compressor or a garden hose when it spat out an air bubble. 

Kira began to slowly turn around. If she was going to be in danger then she was going to face it. Where else was she going to go? Back into the dining room with Foxy and Bonnie so they could chase her again?

She had hardly begun the action when she heard Mike yell for her again. She decided to take the chance and flung the door open, slamming it shut behind her as she stepped into the brighter hallway. Turning her head, she locked eyes with Mike, who rushed over to her from the dining room’s doorway, 

“You alright?” he asked, voice slightly panicked. 

She nodded, taking another deep breath, “Yeah, I’m fine. They just startled me.” 

Mike let out a relieved breath as the two walked back to his office, “I’m so sorry. You work here long enough and you start to forget that what’s normal here might not be normal everywhere else,” he told her, “They have a Free Roam mode. Bonnie and Foxy noticed you got cut and tried to see if you were okay.” 

Kira gave him a dry laugh, “Well they didn’t need to chase me.” 

While she appreciated the (simulated) concern, the amount of danger they produced was unnecessary. 

Mike nodded as he sat down in his desk chair, “I completely agree. I’ve disabled that feature on them for now. They won’t be leaving their stages any time soon. Oh, I also grabbed your wallet for you.” 

Kira took a seat in the empty chair across from him, “They shouldn’t have been able to move at all.” she muttered. 

“Pardon?” came Mike’s inquiry. 

Kira played it off, shrugging, “I said thank you for grabbing my wallet.” was her more cheery answer. 

Mike seemed to accept the response and quickly produced a set of papers. The incident report and another one labeled Asset Conflicts. Mike explained that the last one was for employees who have had a potentially traumatic experience with one or all of the Animatronics. He made it clear to her that filing that one out was optional, but if she later required therapy because of the event, the company would have no proof. This meant that, not only would she be unsuccessful in suing the company, but also wouldn’t receive compensation from the company regarding it. Without documentation, as far as they were concerned, it never happened. 

She decided that she wouldn’t sign it. Right now, she just wanted this shift to be over and to go to bed. She could deal with Bonnie and Foxy tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Kira. I got news for you about those flying spiders.....
> 
> also, it seems that Mike knows more than he's letting on o3o


	3. Nightmares and Daydreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> National Steel - Colin James  
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETZc7ng5h4]

The street was already fairly awake when Kira stepped out of the diner. It was sunny and crisp with the occasional cloud floating lazily along it’s way. Autonomous vehicles, most of them Teslas, navigated the road accurately and to perfection, shuttling their passengers to wherever it was they were going on a Saturday morning. There were still plenty of human-driven vehicles, however. Not everyone could afford one of the fancy Teslas that did all the work for you, especially in this neighborhood. 

There were a handful of vacant lots here, the result of buildings being demolished due to either fire or structural rot that made them unsafe. Just down the street was a children's home. It was more like a very large house rather than an official building and occasionally Kira would see the children playing in the front yard. Many of the kids who lived there were orphans or fosters waiting for their parents or guardian to smarten up or get out of prison.

She felt bad for them, but there were worse places to be in this city. At least they had food and shelter. Despite the dimness one might observe from a glance, this was one of the busier roads in the city. There were shops and bars lining the road, parallel to the diner and a few scattered apartment buildings on the other side. Kira’s apartment was only a block from the establishment, well within walking distance. She didn’t see the point in wasting the gas in her vehicle with something that only took her twenty minutes to traverse herself. 

As the girl walked, she surveyed the parking lot, all but empty with the exception of Mike’s car. It was a non-autonomous vehicle, as evident by the older model. It was a deep cherry red Chevrolet, though she couldn’t tell what kind of Chevy it was, other than it was one of the company’s multiple four-door sedans.

Turning down the road once she got to the sidewalk, or at least the packed strip of snow that served as the sidewalk, Kira walked briskly back to her home. She passed one of Amazon’s robotic delivery units along the way. It wasn’t quite an android, with it’s wiry frame and alabaster casing. It looked like a more mechanical mannequin, except for the fact that it’s face was a black, convex screen. It was dressed in the typical black and blue uniform. Its name, Kira noted as she managed a glimpse at its name tag, was Chuck. 

It didn’t acknowledge her as she passed it carrying a small box, but the man sitting in the delivery truck a few feet up the road did. He said a polite “Good Morning” to her as she trudged through the snow. He wore the same uniform as the Amazon Unit and also had the same name tag. Kira realized that ‘Chuck’ was the man’s name and not the unit’s. 

‘ _ He must be the handler, then. _ ’ she thought as she returned his greeting. 

The rest of her walk was spent in silence and otherwise uninterrupted. 

Kira banged the toes of her boots on the stone outside the apartment building to rid them of any clinging snow. She was one of the few tenants who had respect for the building she lived in and would rather not be the one responsible for soaking the lobby carpet. Besides, she knew that the landlord, Gary, appreciated it. He was a nice old man in his late sixties and had been widowed twice over. His first wife was lost to the nasty pandemic that had hit in 2020. The second, Cancer had won that fight. He had two sons once, as well. Both died in a war overseas after being drafted at the age of twenty-five. 

She felt bad for him, having gone through so much loss and pain. She couldn’t imagine having to cope with that alone. Many people in his shoes would turn to their favorite bottle, but Kira never once smelled any trace of alcohol on him. He was almost always in a sunny mood and she envied him for that. In a way, he reminded her a bit of Bob Ross. 

She rounded the right corner and walked to the end of the quiet hall where her apartment door was. She liked being on the ground floor. It granted her a tiny patch of grass, once the snow melted, and got a pleasant amount of sun. She wasn’t overly fond of heights anyways. 

Closing the door behind her and sliding the chain bolt into place, Kira let out an exhausted sigh. A tiny, black box-shaped robot on track wheels scooted idly on her counter. It was a most recent model of a Vector home robot and it bore a pleasant resemblance to Wall-E. Once it recognised Kira, it greeted her with her name and a trilling, pitched sound that she supposed was meant to be a kind of purr. 

She gave the tiny robot a tired smile, “Hello Vector,” she greeted as she kicked off her boots and threw her blood stained gloves in the trash. There was no getting that mess out of leather. She walked over to a slender laptop, throwing her jacket over the back of a small couch. She tapped on the keyboard and made a few clicks with the wireless mouse. 

A chat application opened and she read the displayed message:

**[10:48 AM]**

**> >** Hey! How’d the furst day go?

It was from Brian, a friend she had made back in college. They were both technicians and had remained on pleasant terms after their time shared in the classroom was over. Brian worked in the U.K now, as a maintenance technician at a sister location also owned by Fazbear Entertainment. To her understanding, the establishment wasn’t at all like the ones here. They were more like partners and the only way you could tell that the sister location had anything to do with Fazbear Entertainment was by the fact that they had both a Freddy and a Foxy character. 

Kira sat down and started typing a reply, 

**[11:28 AM]**

**>** Sorry, just got home!

**>** It was fine i guess, if getting terrorized by Bonnie and Foxy after cutting my wrist counts.

**>** I’m gonna have to get to bed though. I work again tomorrow. 

There was a twenty second pause before Brian’s responses flowed through,

**[11:29 AM]**

**> >** Better than my first night.

**> >**They had me rebooting a security system and the bear got loose.

**> >** Stupid white an’ pink bitch came at me, then they had me run a response test on the fox.

**[11:31 AM]**

**> >** Hey! No worries! Have a good rest!

Kira wanted to correct him. To tell him that Funtime Freddy was white and  _ purple _ , not white and pink, but the exchange seemed slightly childish when she thought about it. Instead, she logged off before getting changed into comfortable, flannel, shark printed pajama pants and a grey, loose-fitting tank top. She re-heated some left-over Chinese food from the previous night, ate it, took some melatonin, and went to bed. 

It was snowing again when Kira woke up. The large flakes fell softly outside her apartment window as she poured herself a large mug of coffee. She felt calm and well rested, stirring in the single spoonful of sugar into the otherwise blackish-brown liquid. In the background, the song “National Steel” by Colin James flowed from the speakers of an old, blue, portable record player. Although records and record players were hardly used anymore, the sound was still just as rich as ever. There was something about listening to music this way that made it sound better. So many things could be done to a song now-a-days to change how it sounded. Some people preferred songs with a heavier base and with a few taps on a keyboard, it was done. 

Not so for vinyl. The large black discs captured how the music was meant to sound. It was raw and natural. The soft crackle as the record spun was a constant reminder that this music was a physical object. Not just rhythmic vibrations in the air that someone played from their smartphones. 

As she sipped her coffee, Kira leaned against the counter and watched the record spin. The disk was almost done, but that was alright. She had roughly sixty more she could listen to afterwards. Her peculiar, blue-brown eyes drifted to the open lid of the record player. There was a note on the underside written in black sharpie. The font was rough and fat and borderline illegible to someone who hadn’t grown up reading it. 

_ Respect the classics!  _

_ -Dad _

Kira smiled, thinking back to the animatronics in the diner. She had always felt uneasy around robots. It was a phobia, but she loved working on them enough that it almost made her forget to be afraid of them. Unless they were sprinting across the dining room towards her like Foxy had, or reaching out to grab her like Bonnie. She had a habit of always finding the humor in any situation. It was a coping method she had adopted after her best friend’s death and her own near-death. 

Rather than look at a situation and see nothing but blackness and cold shadows, her friend had chosen to look for the colour and brightness. It was that or else he was pulled beneath the neglectful, frigid waters his mother liked to drag him through. She remembered playing with him, the two of them sneaking off to the park down the road after his mother had abandoned him in their little town house to go fool around with a man that wasn’t her husband. 

The woman would pitch the most wonderful fits on the days they had gotten back after she had. There was so much screaming and shouting, but her friend always had to hold in his laughter and did so with the straightest face she’d ever seen on a young boy. 

When he got to be ten and her nine, she had asked him why his mother yelling at him had always been so funny. This had made him grin in the most impish way, his bright green eyes glinting with a dark kind of humor, 

“Because one day I’ll be big enough to yell back.” he had said. She found herself wishing that she was there on the day he did. 

His father’s absence wasn’t of his own choice. He was a military man and one of the best snipers in his Unit. His records on both the shooting range and in live combat have yet to be broken. 

The man was one of her father's best friends and was almost like an uncle to Kira. Both a talented musician and a genius robotics engineer. He loved his son with every fiber of his existence and always made sure that her friend knew it. He wasn’t aware of his wife sleeping around behind his back and no one ever had the courage to tell him. 

He died three years after being honorably discharged and his wife divorcing him, leaving Kira’s friend in his father’s care.

It had been written as some freak work accident, but that wasn’t the whole story. Many people had known the man and it hadn't sat right with the city when it had happened. There were rumors going around but no real proof of anything. Even the police had a hard time grasping what had occurred. 

Her friend was eight when his father had died. His mother didn’t take him back, so Kira’s family had done so instead. 

She missed him. More than she had expected herself to. But she had been there when he had died. Seen the roof of the old, burning building crush him as it fell, mere seconds after he had shoved her out of the way. The nightmares still woke her every now and then, the raw fear seeping through cracks in a wall she had tried to keep standing for the last thirteen years. 

Death stares at her from the black smoke. Her head tells her to run, but her legs won’t move. Her lungs burn as the oxygen is engulfed by the flames. There is another explosion and she wakes up, her friend’s name a choked scream stuck in the back of her throat. 

The last thing she remembers are cold, dead eyes. 

An alarm from her phone beeps urgently next to her, making her jump and spill her coffee a little. The apartment has gone quiet, the record having finished playing a long while ago. She sets the half finished mug down and checks the time on her device. It’s two thirty in the morning.

Kira quickly cleaned up the spill and put on some dark skinny jeans, a clean sports bra and a kelly green long sleeve shirt that hugs her form comfortably. She rubs her thumb over the shiny copper gear that sits just beneath her shirt collar, hung on a delicate silver chain. It had been the last thing her friend had given her before he had died. The gear had come from his dad’s workshop and the chain had been found in one of his mother’s hastily emptied drawers. 

Shaking her head to clear the memory, she threw on her boots, jacket and scarf. No gloves today, since they were in the trash. Double checking to make sure she had her keys, wallet and phone, she turned off the lights and locked the door behind her. 

Kira took a deep inhale of the clean, crisp air as she stepped out of the lobby doors. She felt a determined fire ignite in her chest as she began walking to the diner. She wouldn’t be afraid of them tonight or any other night after. She’d make it her life’s purpose to get them all running perfectly and keep them that way. 

She found herself smirking at the sentence that ran through her head, imagining it being something her friend would say if he had lived past the age of eleven, 

  
‘ _ Round two, motherfuckers. _ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ding, Ding 
> 
> \-----
> 
> We get some insight on how the world's technology has developed and some hints towards Kira's backstory.


	4. Access Granted

The first thing Kira noticed was that Mike’s car hadn’t moved since yesterday. This was evident by the thick layer of fresh snow covering the vehicle and a significant lack of tire tracks. There were tracks going  _ in _ , however. They looked big and snaked around to the back of the building. Probably a delivery truck, although what the Arcade-That-Wasn’t-Open-Yet was getting delivered when the date for said opening was almost a year away was beyond her.

She shrugged. She wasn’t going to let that anomaly throw her off her game. She wasn’t going to take any shit tonight, least of all from some piece-of-shit animatronics. She was their mechanic. If they wanted to be aggressive then they could rust in a corner and think about what they did.

Flinging open the front door, Kira looked down at her phone and noticed that she was ten minutes early. ‘ _ Perfect, _ ’ she thought, ‘ _ Just enough time to assert myself. _ ’

She walked down the hall with a purpose, giving Mike’s door a single knock as she passed the office, “Hey Mike!” she greeted. She guessed she must have startled him because right after she had knocked Kira heard a sputter followed by some light coughing as he returned her greeting. Poor guy must have been drinking some water.

Kira turned left and poked her head into the Arcade Room at the end of the hall, “Morning Marionette.” the girl managed to catch a glimpse as the black and white animatronic looked over its shoulder towards her before Kira ducked back out of the open door.

Her eyes stared at the void doorway that led to the dining room. She marched right in, taking her jacket off as she made her way through the threshold and over to the light switch by the main stage. She said nothing to the animatronics, nor did she even bother to look in their directions.

Once the lights were on, she threw down her jacket, pulled her hair into a ponytail and pulled the tool box out from under the stage.

Standing, she took a deep breath and turned, pointing at Foxy, “You stay. Do you hear me?  _ Stay _ . If I even  _ think _ I hear you take one step towards the edge of that stage I’m gonna drop everything I’m doing and walk out of this room,” her voice was authoritative and firm. She then faced the main stage, “Same goes for you three, Bonnie especially. Behave or I’m  _ gone _ ,” she told them, "No moving unless I  _ ask _ you to... Please."

Kira could feel them looking at her and she knew that she had their attention. Good.

She waited a few moments, giving Foxy ample time to decide to be a little shit and move, regardless of her order. When he didn't, and none of the others did either, Kira got to work. She was bad for starting a project then jumping to another one before the previous was done. Unfortunately she had done the same thing with Freddy, Bonnie and Foxy.

She already knew Foxy's speaker could be working in no time, so she settled for fixing that first. Grabbing the tool box, she walked over to the pirate ship stage and stepped up to stand in front of Foxy.

Starting where she left off, without getting cut this time, Kira stripped a horribly corroded wire of its green rubber case and snipped it off mid way. She made sure to leave the contact slot alone. She needed something to link the wire to his power core, after all.

Out of habit, she turned to grab a new wire, only to pause once she realized that there was no spare beside her. She hopped off the stage and jogged out of the room to Mike's office. She opened her mouth to ask where she could find a spare set of wires, but the man wasn't there.

She walked back into the hall and called for him, "Mike?"

There was a loud crash from the first door in the right hall. The same door to the room Kira had used to hide from Foxy. Next thing she knew, Mike came bursting from the door beside that one, slamming the door shut and looking pale and sweaty. He was breathing harder than he should be.

Kira looked at him, shocked, "What the hell was that all about? Are you okay?"

Mike looked at her, hand still clutching the door knob as he shakily turned a key to lock it, "You uh… Didn't hear anything in that other room yesterday, did you?" He asked, gesturing to the first door.

Kira was about to say 'no' when she remembered the odd sounds, "Kinda?"

"Like what?"

She shrugged, "It.. Sounded like metal footsteps, but they weren't as heavy as Foxy's. And hissing, almost like an air compressor…"

Mike nodded and jiggled the other door's handle, assuring himself that it was locked as well. He huffed an uneasy laugh, "Or like a hydraulic pump or whatever trying to push water through a near-empty tank?"

Kira had a moment of clarity. "Actually, yeah, exactly like that. It sounded like a really shitty steam release valve… Why is this important?"

Mike looked at her, the same serious look on his face that he had given her yesterday, "Okay. I'm going to be completely honest with you," he started, "You were safer with Foxy and Bonnie. I truly can't believe you stayed in there for as long as you did and got out with that cut on your wrist,"

Kira shook her head and waved her hands, silencing the older man, "Wait why? Cut to the chase, man!"

He took a deep breath, releasing it as a huge sigh, "He was in that room with you. The Spring Bonnie character I told you about. He crawled through a ground vent under the floor connecting Parts and Service to the storage room. He had been right behind you the entire time you were hiding from Foxy."

Kira felt a chill run down her spine and suddenly felt very cold. She swallowed, "What was all the banging I heard earlier?"

Mike chuckled but Kira didn't feel like it was meant to be humorous, "Me. It was me luering him back into Parts and Service and blocking the vent. The crashing was him tearing the room apart trying to get to me."

Kira paused. That…. Shouldn't happen. However, since technology's advancement in robotics and Artificial Intelligence, there  _ had  _ been some accidents. The Laws of Robotics, when interpreted by a learning computer, however plain it may seem, somehow always managed to find a loophole.

She frowned, "I really hope this company has some damn good lawyers."

Mike straightened, giving her a confused look, "What makes you say that?"

The girl sighed, "The Laws of Robotics. Any robot made and any company who owns or manufactures them are bound by those three laws. Which means both Bonnie and Foxy shouldn't have been permitted by their A.I to chase me and that old piece of crap in Parts and Service shouldn't be  _ attacking _ people."

Mike was silent and, for the barest moment, Kira could have sworn she saw the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile, “Unless  _ hurting you _ wasn’t  _ actually _ part of Bonnie and Foxy’s intentions.  _ You _ had just interpreted their actions as hostile.”

Mike's stoic expression couldn't hide the glint of amusement in his eyes, however. Kira waited a moment but Mike never spoke again. Eventually, Kira decided to just drop it. Mike did have a bit of a point. Not to mention that this was really none of her business.

Defeated, Kira gestured to the storage room door, "Please tell me you have some spare wires in there."

Mike nodded, "Yeah, the lights busted though. He broke the overhead fixture yesterday. You might need a flashlight."

Kira pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned on the app as Mike unlocked the door, opening it slowly. He looked unsettled and she couldn't really blame him.

' _ How the hell do you love your job when shit like this happens?' _

She shone the light and stepped into the room. It was quite big for a storage room. It had metal shelves lining the walls, each one full of cardboard boxes that were labeled in sharpie. Kira recognized some of the elegant writing and immediately knew the Marionette had written some of the labels.

Then she noticed there were deep scratch marks made in the stone floor, a flipped table, scattered spare parts and the mangled vent cover leaning against the wall to her right. How had no one heard the animatronic break that?

Looking up, Kira could see that the light fixture wasn't just broken. The metal sheet keeping the fixture attached to the ceiling was hanging from the roof by a single, bent screw like it had been ripped from the very ceiling. Oddly enough, the bulb was still intact, but the same couldn't be said for the wires, which looked like they had been hacked at with an Axe. The ceiling was almost ten feet high.

Kira shook her head, dismissing the damage, but choosing to keep it in the back of her mind. She needed to find wires for Foxy. Scanning the labels, she noticed that mechanical parts and general building supplies were split down the middle, with all the parts on the right hand side.

Finding one labeled 'Electrical', Kira dug through it and managed to spot the wire she needed. Closing the box and putting it back on the shelf, she walked out of the room and thanked Mike as he locked the door behind her.

He nodded and silently made his way back to his office as she returned to the dining room. To her surprise, the animatronics were all still where she had left them. It felt a little empowering to know that she had told four animatronics, each weighing hundreds of pounds, what to do and that they had listened. She tried not to dwell on it. Machines were unpredictable and it was her job to make them the opposite.

As she hooked up the new wire to Foxy's speaker, Kira's mind wandered back to her previous shift. She hadn't wanted to say anything, but Mike's… Explanation… regarding the A.I used by the characters seemed a little far fetched. Kira couldn't ever remember, in her four years of Robotics Engineering classes and lifetime surrounded by technicians, hearing about how advanced the Fazbear Entertainment animatronics were. Something like that would have absolutely shown up.

Which got Kira thinking. Who was the manufacturer?

Circling around to Foxy's back, she looked for a mark indicating who had made him. She found it on the endoskeleton, the back of the right ear, void of costume.

**-Afton Robotics-**

Her brows raised and she hummed. She had read about that company. It hadn't been anything good, aside from the obvious robotic genius that came out of their shops. That would definitely be enough to explain their A.I, sort of. But even Afton Robotics couldn't make a system that was as advanced as Mike made them sound. Unless they  _ had _ and just never said anything.

Strangely enough, these specific characters were never advertised as even being  _ made _ by that company. It was like they wanted nothing to do with them, though Afton Robotics had been only a few decades old. They had made show robotics, like the ones at Disneyland or other theme parks. She did remember the insane amount of publicity they had received after one of their characters attacked a child. The Company had gone belly up after that. Anything left from them now that hadn’t been tossed into a scrap yard was considered out-dated and risky.

Kira went back to Foxy's front and hooked up the wires. Afton Robotics could suck her non-existent dick. There was nothing more validating than fixing a well-known company's broken shit.

There was a tiny switch on the back of the speaker and Kira pressed it, smiling a bit when a string of garbled words, still too distorted to decipher, flowed from Foxy's chest. His jaw didn’t move with the words, though, she knew that it should have. Kira added it to the list of things she would need to fix.

She watched as the Fox slowly tilted his head to the side and heard the slightest shift in mechanical parts behind her.

Turning slightly, Kira could see that Freddy, Bonnie and Chica's eyes were on her, their forms alert rather than slouched. Foxy's eye lights flickered to their golden amber, illuminating the side of Kira's face.

" ***Th--- e** --***-- l--s,** " came the garbled attempt from the animatronic. Kira frowned. Perhaps this static was a connection issue. She reached towards the voice box but was halted when Foxy attempted to speak again,

" **\--***-*Th--*K-- Y-****---*L-**** "

God it was worse than his first attempt. Kira grimaced at a particularly sharp pitch of static, holding up her hands, "Alright, alright, cease fire, Cap'n!" she told him, ending up giggling a bit when Foxy cocked his head a bit sharper at the nickname, "Let me see if I can fix the wire connection before you accidentally summon Satan."

The many static pops and crackles from behind her, as well as from Foxy, told Kira that her joke was well-received.

Odd. They must have been programmed to recognize and react to humor.

She fiddled with the wires, tightening their connection to the box and then following them to a separate power cell that had been built into Foxy's endoskeleton spine. There was a loose wire, second from the right in a set of four. She turned a screw that held that wire to the power cell and promptly got a nice zap. Something she deserved for touching electronics with her bare hands.

A firm grasp held her by her shoulder, metal fingers keeping her in place and preventing her from flinching and cutting herself again.

Looking up, Kira was met with Foxy's amber lights, though they seemed dimmer now. Less blinding and more focused,

**"Ste*edy there, L*ass. C*can't have ye shre*ddin' ye self up again."**

Kira just stared. Foxy had actually spoken. The accent was definitely designed to sound like a pirate and his tone had held the slightest edge of humor. In her head, she could easily picture him smiling a little.

The lights in his eyes flickered twice before going out almost completely. They still glowed, but it was only as strong as near-dead coals on a fire. At a glance, the eyes would be pitch black.

Slowly, Foxy released his hold on Kira's arm and straightened. The girl withdrew her hand from his torso the rest of the way, careful not to knick herself. Kira stood and stared at him, only turning her head away when she heard footsteps to her right.

Mike had walked into the room, approaching the stage with a small smile on his face, "Did I just hear what I think I heard?"

Kira gave him a slight frown but returned his smile, "You heard him all the way in the office?"

Mike nodded, "Yup. He used to sing a bit too, you know?" He told her, "If… Mumbling sound lyrics to carnival music counts as singing." There was humor in his voice and that mirthful glint in his eyes was back.

Kira hummed, "I think I remember him singing sea shanties, too."

Mike quirked an eyebrow, "Remember him?" He questioned.

Kira knodded, "There was a cartoon that a friend had on VHS. I used to watch it every Saturday with him."

Mike chuckled, "Yeah, my niece used to watch that show. That cartoon pre-dates these guys though. I don't think they ever programmed him to do that."

The girl made a sound of disappointment but Mike could clearly hear the humor in her voice. He gave another chuckle before moving to stand in front of the stage. Foxy's eyes flickered bright amber and his head angled to look down at the man.

Mike looked a bit surprised, but said nothing. Kira took this opportunity to speak instead, clearing her throat to draw the man's attention, "So, uhh. Is there a certain line I need to say to trigger the response audio? I mean… His first sentence seemed pretty voluntary but he hasn't made a sound since…" 

Mike kept his eyes on Foxy, but shrugged at Kira's question, "Not sure. It seemed to change every time I heard them talk before these guys were sent to storage." 

He started to walk backwards, towards the doorway, without looking away from the animatronic, "Freddy and Chica's voices work perfectly fine. No static at all. They were covered the most while in storage," he told her, finally turning to walk back to the office. He looked over his shoulder before he left the room, "You're doing a great job so far, Kira! Keep up the good work!"

Kira just stared after him. She had hardly done anything worth praising aside from fixing Freddy's arm and Foxy's voice box. Honestly, Kira didn't think she deserved the complement quite yet. Turning around to look at the main stage she decided to kick her ass into gear. Foxy's voice box was working, for the most part, but he was far from being fixed and so were the others. None of them were even remotely close to being classified as 'safe for children', but then that's why they were on tall stages even adults had a tough time climbing.

She needed parts. She knew right off the bat that the storage room wouldn't have enough spares or even the right tools for the job she needed to do.

Kira cast a glare out the open doorway to the dining room. She needed to get into Parts and Service.

She felt a twist of anger and frustration in her stomach and shook her head, stepping down from Foxy's stage, "Fuckin' stupid rabbit, piece of fuckin' shit making my job harder than it already is." She mumbled, not loud enough for anyone, especially Freddy, to hear. Kira pointed to the three on the main stage, not looking at them as she walked to the door, "To be continued, Faz Fam!"

Quickly, she walked to Mike's office, "You got a notepad and a pen I can commandeer from your persons?" She asked, hanging off the doorframe.

He chuckled and opened a drawer in his desk, grabbing the items Kira had requested and tossing them to her.

Kira thanked him before turning and speed-walking back to Foxy and the others. She flipped the notepad's cover to a clean page and began her inspection of the fox, checking the back of his ear again and writing down the serial number that identified his base skeleton and model. 

**Foxy: Parts Needing Replacement**

**SK-776487, Model 8**

She looked into the gaping hole that was Foxy's stomach, noticed three key parts that were too damaged to fix and made a note,

  * Lower Primary Motor control node 



This part controlled Foxy's legs and how fast he could move without causing stress on the system. It was all but gone, save for the bit that transfered the power from his battery. He could still walk, but he couldn't regulate the speed.

  * Left Cage, full
  * Right Cage, Segments 3,4,5,6



The metal segments that made up his endoskeleton ribs and ribcage were completely beyond repair on his left, considering they weren't even there. The right side wasn't as bad, but it still needed replacing. The last part she wrote down was a simple set of wires. They were rather large and were braided together like a length of rope no thicker than a single finger. These wires, or what was left of them, supplied sensory feedback to the A.I, allowing the animatronic to "feel in phantoms" when the A.I registered that the robot was touching something. Sadly they looked like they had been torn out, the only part left dangling freely underneath Foxy's right chest plate.

She got ready to write more things down when she stopped. She couldn't see anything inside Foxy because of how dirty he was. There was just… so much rust and dirt and that old, nasty costume hanging off of him.

Kira sighed, making her way back to Mike's office for what felt like the tenth time that morning. He looked up from his computer once he noticed her enter the doorway, "What's up?"

Kira hated having to break what could be considered bad news to an employer. They had hired her to fix the animatronics, but now she'd have to tell Mike that, at this moment... She couldn't,

"I know you said I wasn't allowed in Parts and Service but…" She began, watching as Mike's brows rose slightly, "I… Can't do my job if these guys have fifteen layers of rust and dirt on them. I can't even tell what's broken unless it's staring me in the face. I need to take them apart, clean them and then try and put each one back together," Kira took a breath, "They are too old and rusty for anyone to just simply 'fix' them. This would have to be a complete restoration and I could even give my dad a call and he could explain this better if you'd like?" her tone sounded a lot like the one she had used in her job as a barista. It was a people-pleasing Customer Service tone.

Mike frowned the smallest bit, "Not to sound disrespectful… by why exactly should your dad’s opinion matter to me?” there was some hesitation on Mike’s voice as he asked his question, meaning what he said about not wanting to be disrespectful, then asking a question that immediately made him sound like an asshole. Kira understood. Her mom had one hell of a condescending tone, so Kira was glad that she was able to tell the difference between a false asshole and a real one.

It was Kira’s turn to give Mike a look, her brow furrowing in confusion, “Mmmy dad is Dale?” she tried. Mike gave her a shrug, still unclear, “And?"

"Dale Falks," she stated, a bit more pointedly this time, "He's this company's Chief Technician. His name was on my referral."

A light seemed to go off in Mike's head and his expression changed, "Oh, so that's why they hired you," He noted to himself, realization clear on his voice, "No, no need to get Dale involved. I get it… But where exactly are you going with this?"

Kira didn't like dropping her dad's name but sometimes it seemed like it was the only way for anyone to listen to her. Women were less than common in her line of work. It might as well have been eighty years in the past because the men who worked in robotic engineering jobs would sooner dismiss anything she had to say, even if she was right.

Kira looked Mike in the eye, expression serious but not brutally so that she came across as "the boss" to her  _ actual _ boss,

"I need to get into Parts and Service. I'll have to fix the Spring Bonnie animatronic at some point anyways and if it tries to attack me I have a few good wrenches in that tool box back there." 

She could see the small glint of fear in his eyes before they angled to look behind her. Kira turned to see what he was looking at and was met with the familiar form of the Marionette. How long had it been standing there?

It held the small white board in it's left hand and scribbled something down before turning it for them to read,

- _ Let her try, Mike. He's never met a girl mechanic before and she's a lot less threatening than you are. _ -

Mike groaned and leaned back in his chair, running his hand down his face, “That’s not comforting. She’s a lot more breakable than I am-”

A sharp knock on the doorframe cut Mike off and the Marionette wrote some more,

- _ He could have hurt her when he was in the storage room with her yesterday but he didn’t. He just watched. He didn’t see her as a threat, but the second you open the door he attacks you _ .- 

Mike huffed a short, humorless laugh, "He probably didn't attack her because he couldn't  _ see _ her!"

The Marionette's shoulders slouched dramatically and the eyes narrowed into a light glare. 

- _ You know he can see in the dark Mike. _ \- 

Kira was surprised, "He has night vision?"

The Marionette nodded, 

- _ Yes, it was a requirement. He needed to be able to navigate in low light so he didn't walk into a wall or trample another person _ .-

The girl squinted the smallest bit at the last two words, ' _ Another person? _ ' She questioned silently, ' _ They never used the Spring Lock mechanism. There was no "other person"... It was just the people in the building. _ '

If the Marionette had noticed the look Kira had given its words, it made no indication. A dramatic groan from Mike drew their attention back to the mad as he ran his hands through his short hair, "You either have the best or the worst timing with things like this, you know?" He told Kira, "I mean, first Bonnie and Foxy scare the shit out of you on your first night, then you skid right by a potentially very dangerous encounter, now  _ this _ ."

The corners of the marionettes smile turned up a little bit more,

- _ Something wrong, Michael? _ -

He pointed at the animatronic, "I told you to stop calling me that and yes, something is wrong,"

Kira rocked back on her heels, "Like what?"

Mike gave a defeated sigh, "I'm not in tomorrow. It's my day off. Which means I won't be able to keep an eye on you with that Spring Bonnie character."

The marionette wrote quickly,

- _ I can watch them. I was going to anyways. _ -

_ 'Anyways? I hadn't even said anything about going in there until now…’ _

Mike nodded, "Okay, fair, but I'd like someone-" he hesitated, eyes darting to Kira for a second "Someone human watching them."

Kira frowned, "Who's the fill-in tomorrow then?"

The man scratched at his beard, "Jeremy Fitzjerald, but he refuses to interact with the characters. He's had some less than fabulous interactions with Freddy." He explained. 

The Marionette turned the whiteboard to Kira, 

- _ Bonnie had to intervene last time, but that was years ago _ .- 

Kira almost laughed but stopped herself, "I don't think they'd be any problem for him anymore… As long as Foxy and Bonnie stay on stage."

The room was quiet, both the man and the marionette just looking at her. The soft squeaking of the marker was the only sound,

- _ You'd be surprised _ .-

"Thank you, Liz." came Mike's firm tone, a clear indication that he wanted the animatronic to stop whatever it was doing. It was a dismissal. 

The Marionette looked at the man for a moment, then nodded and left, presumably returning to the Arcade Room. Kira watched as it retreated, noticing that it appeared to _ levitate _ . Her eyes searched for a track in the ceiling. Sure enough, there was one. It was thin and virtually unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. The wires seemed to be tethered to the wrists and ankles of the animatronic.

‘ _ That must have been expensive… _ ’ Kira thought, fascinated by the concept. But now she had a question that had bugged her the first time she had met the Marionette. Turning back to Mike, Kira pointed at the spot where the character once stood, “Why do you keep calling it Liz?” 

Mike got a look on his face that one normally gets when they’ve been caught with something they shouldn’t have. The facial manifestation of ‘Oh fuck’. Reluctantly, Mike gave her an answer, 

“Because her name is Liz. Well… Elizabeth, actually. She was part of a promotional thing the company had years ago. They needed a new character so they let the kids submit drawings and the Marionette’s design won. The little girl who drew her died of leukemia a few months later so they named it after her.” 

The way Mike had said it sounded… rehearsed. Like he had to give this answer so many times that it was like stating a fact now. Lie or not, it was a believable answer so Kira accepted it as truth. 

With her question answered, Kira turned her palms out towards Mike, a silent prompt, "So is this a 'yes' or a 'no'?" 

Mike closed his eyes and sighed, "I… Yeah. Sure, it's a yes. You can _ try _ and get into parts and service tomorrow," came his answer, sounding like he'd rather not be giving it, "But I want you to take Liz with you and make sure Jeremy knows when you try it. For now, just do what you can." 

It took everything Kira had not to shout her victory to the world and keep her composure. Clearing her throat and actively trying to keep her voice in the same neutral tone the situation called for, she ripped the page out of the notebook and held it out for Mike, "These are the parts Foxy needs that I could see. If you can, I suggest using Mavrik Robotics for the parts. They use carbon steel so it'll help keep the parts in good condition longer." 

Mike took the paper and gave her a smile after reading what she wrote, "Alright. I'll give 'em a call tomorrow," he told her, "Could I maybe ask you to see about Chica's twisted arm, if you wouldn't mind?" 

Kira nodded, "Yeah, sure! But if it's just a misaligned servo, I will need some help turning it the right way."

There was that barely detectable smile again. Like Mike knew something she didn't and her ignorance amused him, "That's fine," he said, "Just ask the big guy for a hand if you need one."

The girl paused, confused, "I… Pardon?"

Mike taped the note Kira had given him to the edge of the computer screen. Looking over at her, he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, "I said," he began, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly, "Ask Freddy." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Jan.5/2021]
> 
> Hullo again! Hope you all had a great new year! I figured I'd update this chapter with a little note to let you guys know how things are going, rather than post a notice chapter and get you excited over nothing. <3
> 
> So if you haven't already noticed, there is no posting schedule. I work in a grocery store, which is labeled as a "High Risk" job in my Country, due to the pandemic (hope you are all doing well, btw!), and my hours keep getting cut as a result. This means I am trying to find another part-time job to help me pay my bills ;u; 
> 
> There is also no backlog. I write these chapters as I go and unfortunately I am also looking for a new apartment, which isn't as easy as I'd like. 
> 
> I'll try my best to give you all a fresh chapter at least once a month, but I can't make any promises for obvious reasons. c: 
> 
> All that said, I now have a question for you! How would you feel about Scrap Metal getting it's own Tumblr? It would include things like Character Sheets, Maps and I would also be open to Q&A both OOC and In Character. Don't expect any smut drawings on it tho, cuz I know there are children on that site and there are other places for that. 
> 
> Let me know what you think and If I get enough interest, I'll try and fire one up! 
> 
> Wishing you all the best, and thanks for reading!   
> -Coffie


	5. Second Opinions

This was stupid. How was she supposed to believe that a machine could follow cognitive orders? Kira was one more shift away from straight-up calling Mike out on all the weird shit that was happening here. 

Mike treated all of this like it was normal! Nothing about this was normal! Machines can't behave with cognitive accuracy and machines can't break programming, regardless of A.I capabilities. This was all so undoubtedly sketchy. 

But she was here anyways, standing on the main stage in front of Chica with her hands on her hips. She stared at the animatronic, occasionally glancing at Freddy. Kira hoped that the twisted arm wasn't a misaligned servo, just so she wouldn't be forced to indulge Mike and his suggestion-that-made-no-sense. She knew that he'd just tell her to ask Freddy for help again, rather than help her himself. She refused to let Mike drag her into his freak show.

Sighing heavily, Kira walked over to the yellow animatronic, picking up a flat-headed screwdriver from the toolbox at her feet along the way. She snorted, unimpressed when she saw that, rather than give the character faux feather down, Chica's costume was cheap microfiber fabric. It was moldy and damp, but not nearly as nasty as Freddy, Bonnie and Foxy's was. 

If there really was no set budget for the characters, she was absolutely going to take advantage of that for the restorations. Each character was intended to be based on a real animal. A chicken with no feathers was just insulting and borderline creepy. 

As Kira used a screwdriver to unscrew a costume panel on Chica's twisted shoulder, there was a sudden clatter of metal hitting the tile floor. Kira spun around and glared at Foxy, who had decided to take two good steps off of his stage. The amber lights were lit and angled to look at her.

"Are you serious right now?" The girl questioned, a challenging tone in her voice. 

She heard the wurr of the mechanical parts as the animatronic cocked his head to one side. The voice box crackled before Foxy responded, " ***J**just keepin'** ya on*n 'yer *toes, Lass.** " 

Kira could hear the smirk in his voice, facial expressions be damned. She put her hands on her hips and hummed, screwdriver still in hand. She decided to play this little game, "So you think I was just bluffing then?" She asked. Foxy's head cocked just a little bit sharper, the unasked question clear. 

Kira looked at Chica, using the screwdriver to point at Foxy, "This is all his fault, so you can be pissy at him." And proceeded to mic drop the screw driver, walk to the edge of the stage, jump down and make her way towards the doorway, ignoring Foxy as she went. 

A different, deeper and more forceful voice spoke up from behind her, making her jump and stop walking, 

" **Back to your stage.** " 

It was an order but not the kind that sounded like a threat, though regardless, you knew there would be consequences if you didn't listen.

The baritone voice had the faintest western accent, but it was there. It was an intimidating voice without even trying and Kira turned slowly to face the main stage. 

Freddy's eyes were angled up to look at Foxy across the room, though his posture was still relaxed and neutral. 

' _Yeah,_ ' Kira thought, ' _That sounds like the kind of voice they'd give a bear…_ '

She stood there for a moment, staring at the brown animatronic. She only looked away when she saw Foxy turn and step up to his own stage again, centering himself and turning to face a nonexistent crowd.

The room went uneasily quiet. The animatronics were still, the amber light from Foxy's eyes was gone and Freddy was no longer looking at the fox, but rather, at the tile floor. Kira took her next few steps with a smidge of hesitation, ready to turn around and walk out if the characters started moving.

Then she stopped and straightened, pointing at Foxy, "Wait a sec, you left the stage!" She stated, surprised. Foxy didn't react as she kept speaking, "Mike disabled the Free Roam function yesterday! How did you move!?" 

Silence. 

Not even the whispering hum of cooling fans from the animatronics. Kira made a prompting motion with her hands when her question went unanswered. The silence stretched for another minute before Kira just… Gave up. She took a deep breath, sighing into her hands as she brought them to her face to rub her eyes. She was too tired for this.

Why did she try? This felt like a battle she wasn't going to win, no matter the effort. This place was weird, that was a given. The more she tried to make sense of the odd behavior of the characters, the more confused she got. Better to just roll with it and save herself the headache. So much for not letting Mike drag her with him.

"Okay," she sighed, climbing back up the stage to get back to work on Chica's arm, "You guys win." 

Picking up the screw driver and removing the rest of the costume panels, she groaned when she saw the servo. There, in the shoulder socket, was a fabulously clean twist. The metal gasket securing the part to the upper torso had a wonderful, forked crack and Kira knew immediately that the rotation of Chica's arm was forced. If a human’s arm couldn't do that without breaking, neither could theirs. 

The entire appendage would have to be removed and re-fitted with a new gasket before it could function without destroying the wires more than they already were. It was so mangled that it looked like confetti streamers had gotten caught in everything. She couldn't tell where one ended and another started. 

Good thing she had a friend overseas who specialized in electrical configuration. Kira was more of an analog mechanic, which probably played a part in her getting hired…. Along with her dad being the chief technician, but she wasn't going to accept that. 

Looking at her phone's lock screen, she saw the time: 4:30 AM. 

She had wasted almost an hour and a half with non-progressive, animatronic bullshit. Time to work. Unlocking the phone, she opened Discord and started a voice call. The line rang five times before the person she was calling picked up, 

"Hey, Kira. Kinda busy, can this wait?" 

Brian sounded stressed and she was barely able to make out a constant beeping sound in the background noise on his end. He must be working still.

"Just need a quick second opinion and possibly a walkthrough." She explained, aware that she was possibly inconveniencing him and his job. There was a loud clatter of heavy metal parts from his end, the mic cutting out for a second. The next thing she heard was Brian yelling,

"Excuse _you_ , sir! I'm busy! I understand that you are less than fond of me but the more you keep me from this panel, the longer I'm gonna be in here! Calm yourself, Jesus Christ!" 

Kira pursed her lips and her eyes watered from holding in the fit of laughter. After a moment of silence, Kira asked, "Are you good?" Though she was unable to keep the smile out of her voice. She heard Brian snort, "Pfft, as good as I can be with Funtime Freddy being a dick from the corner of the maintenance room. Stupid bear. What's up? You called about a second opinion?" 

Kira cleared her throat and got back on track, "Yeah, I'm trying to fix up Chica but her arm was flipped the other direction like a barbie doll and snapped the gasket. The wires are a mess and I'm trained primarily in analog." 

Brian hummed thoughtfully on his end of the line. She heard him close something and his voice was farther away when he spoke again, "Can you please just, chill for five minutes? You can time me if it makes you feel better, but please." He sounded like he was bargaining, but not with her. The rustling was back for a minute and she heard Brian give a relieved exhale, "Thank you."

The camera was switched on and she saw Brian's face pop up on her screen. He was an attractive man. Well muscled and tall, about six feet, plus or minus a few inches with short, dark brown hair and blue eyes. His skin was light, but nicely tanned, with well groomed stubble in the shape of a beard. He loved his garden back home just as much as he loved his computer and turntable. Brian was older than her by four years, making him twenty-seven now. He hadn't been able to afford college until later in his life, explaining the age gap during their shared attendance. 

The area around him was nearly pitch black, with only the light from various monitors illuminating his features. He sharply inclined his chin, "Lemme see what'cha got." 

Kira turned her camera towards Chica's arm and heard Brian choke on a laugh, "Holy, I see why you called me." 

Kira slouched off-camera, "Right? I swear the last mechanic had a vendetta against these guys." She joked, earning a light chuckle from the man, "Yeah, no shit. Okay, well you need the arm off, first of all. But I'm guessing there is an issue otherwise I know it would already be off. So with that established, you see that wire? The thick red one with a black serial number? No, no, to your right a bit… Yeah that one!" he instructed, “Turn off Chica’s battery, get some wire cutters and clip that one from the shoulder socket. It’s the primary power wire. Clipping that will kill power transmission to most of the other wires, so if you pinch something when taking the arm off or if there is a power surge from the battery, you won’t get electrocuted.” 

Kira gave the camera a thumbs up, “Got it! I might give you another call when I can actually get into Parts and Service. Is any time okay?” 

There was a pause and Kira figured it was Brian deciding on an answer. Soon enough, it came, “Actually… How about I call you when I get a chance? There are certain places where any sound isn’t a good idea, progression wise. Breaks my concentration.” 

Kira understood. She was the same way. Enter the zone and whoever drags you out of it when you’re on a role is immediately on your Shit List,

"Alright, sounds good. Thanks, I'll let you get back to work now. Later babe." The word had left her mouth before she could stop it. Kira felt her face heat up and the knot form in her stomach. 

She could see the small smile stretch across his face only to disappear just as fast, "Babe?" He questioned, his tone indifferent, "You haven't called me that since college." 

Kira grimaced a little, "I know, I'm sorry. It slipped out." 

His warm chuckle answered her, "Don't worry about it, Kira. Honestly," he told her in a pleasantly casual voice, "I'll call you when I get a chance, okay?"

Kira gave him a smile, "Kay." She agreed.

The call ended and Kira brought her hands up, phone still in her grasp, and curled her fingers into the tightened hair of her ponytail, "Oh my god, I'm a moron." She mumbled, although, with a small amused smile. Brian was no doubt having a good chuckle over her mistake. 

But now wasn't the time to be messing around. She grabbed a pair of wire cutters and compared the jaws to the cord. Too small. The cutters wouldn't even get halfway through the hefty cable. She rummaged around in the little toolbox and couldn't find anything bigger. Time to pay the Storage room another visit. 

She jumped off the stage and made her way to Mike's office again. He was talking to someone on the phone when she poked her head in. He held a finder up, silently asking her to give him a minute. Kira nodded, standing just outside the door as he talked. Occasionally she was able to hear Mike's half of the conversation… Not that she was eavesdropping. If she wanted to do that she would still be in the doorway. 

It sounded like he was talking to a higher-up. There were enough "yes, sir"s and "I understand, sir"s to make someone not part of the conversation grow the smallest bit concerned. There was a lengthy pause before Mike spoke again, "Actually, sir, she's right outside my office. I can hand her the phone, if you'd like?" 

Kira's stomach dropped. Oh no. Who was on the phone? Was she getting fired? They could fire her if they felt she wasn’t progressing fast enough. Which she wasn’t. Under normal circumstances she would have had Foxy stripped down to parts and sitting in plastic bins full of rust remover by now. Possibly even sorting through his broken parts and making notes. That was only if the stupid golden rabbit wasn’t in Parts and Service. She heard Mike continue, 

“Alright… Yes, sir, I’ll put her on.” 

Kira peeked around the doorframe to see Mike waving her in. She took a deep breath and walked to the desk, taking the phone and holding it up to her ear, “Hello?”

“Hey, kiddo. Heard that you have a problem getting the characters fixed.” 

Kira breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed into the chair beside her when her father’s voice answered her, “Oh god, I thought I was getting fired.” 

His deep chuckle was echoed by Mike's lighter one. In her head, she could easily picture her dad leaning back in his office chair, feet up on his desk, grinning from ear to ear, “No, no, You’re not fired. Mike just called to voice a concern," he explained, "Said that you have a certain animatronic acting… Difficult." 

Kira rubbed her temple with her free hand, "Yeah. Sounds super far-fetched and impossible because Asimov's Laws should be keeping it from doing any of what Mike said it's doing."

There was a short chuckle from her father, "Well, you gotta do some background research on those older models. Not all animatronics are gonna be programmed the way your school said they should. That's how they would behave if this were a linear, perfect world. Each one is programmed with specific skills and jobs," he told her, "Take that Spring Bonnie for example. Before it was sold in auction it was used in a horror attraction. It's job is to chase people, not to hurt them." 

Kira let out a groan, "Uhhg, yeah that makes sense. 'Kay, I'll go snooping in their files before I try and restore them. I might have to re-establish some old protocol." 

She could sense Dale nodding in agreement, "Sounds like a plan. Good luck with it tomorrow, kiddo." 

Kira was about to say goodbye and hang up, but then a question popped into her head, "Oh, hey, wait Dad!"

"What's up?"

"Completely not work-related, but are we still doing Christmas at your place?" 

The hesitation followed by a deep exhale was enough to lower Kira's spirits, "Actually, darlin'. I was meaning to talk to you about that. I wasn't able to get the time off. The head office has just bought back some old land and they got a damn big project they want me working on."

He sounded just as disappointed as she felt. Kira pursed her lips, "Ah, alright then. I guess I'll have to give you your gift later." She said, smiling just to keep the sadness out of her voice. Not that it did her any good with her father, 

"I'm sorry, Kira. I know you were looking forward to visiting… Your mom is still-"

"I'm not spending Christmas with _Cheryl_." she interrupted, practically spitting her mother's name through her teeth as if the name itself was poisonous. She could feel Mike's eyes on her and when she glanced over to him, he was quick to look at his computer screen instead. 

Kira cleared her throat and lowered her voice, "Sorry, didn't mean to snap at you… I'll talk to you later, okay? Thanks for the advice, dad. Love you." 

There was a half-hearted chuckle before her dad responded, "It's alright, sweetheart. You be careful, okay? Love you too."

Kira handed Mike the phone and he placed it back on the charger, "You looked like you needed something before, what's up?" He asked as she got out of the chair.

Kira turned, "Oh right! Key, please! I need to get into the storage room. None of the wire cutters in the tool box are big enough for me to use on Chica's arm." 

Mike nodded, unclipping a brass key from the keyring at his hip and handing it to her. She thanked him and exited the office, walking down the halls to the door. She inserted the key and turned, hearing the lock slide the other way and opened the door.

The room was just as she had left it. Or rather. Just as the Spring Bonnie character had left it. Table still on it’s side and the light still torn from the ceiling, wires dangling freely. She turned on the flashlight app and shone the beam around the room. The ground vent was covered with a square of plywood and some cinder blocks now, she noticed. Directing the light upwards, Kira got a better look at the light. She frowned when she noticed that the torn wires that hung from the ceiling were too short. If she straightened them back out, given that she could even reach them, none of the cables would connect. In fact, it looked like about five inches of cord was _missing_ , 

“What the fuck?” she breathed. There was a muffled clatter through the wall to her right. She directed the light over to it. It was the only wall between her and Parts and Service. She waited a moment before her curiosity got the better of her. Slowly, she walked closer to the wall, finally pressing her ear to it, yet heard nothing. The covered opening to the ground vent was just to her left and, despite the board and concrete blocks, she could hear faint noises through it. Abandoning the wall, she knelt down and listened. She heard what sounded like the broken hiss from before, only much shorter, followed by momentary metallic scraping. Then silence. Kira stayed there, waiting, knowing full well that the sounds were coming from the Spring Bonnie character.

Then a new set of sounds came through the vent. It was barely audible, but the melodic nature was unmistakable and surprising. It was humming to itself. Kira had no idea what song it was, if it even was a real song, but it was intriguing nonetheless. Her lips parted and she spoke, “Hello?” 

The humming stopped. 

She hit her forehead with the palm of her hand, “Stupid, why try and talk to it?” she scolded herself, getting up and walking away, suddenly getting the feeling that she shouldn’t be near the vent. 

After some digging, Kira found the right size of wire cutter she needed. She gave the cinder blocks and board one last look before locking the door behind her. “Tomorrow. Deal with it tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE ON TRACK NOW, FAM! 
> 
> This would have been up sooner, but unfortunately we had to put my 16 y/o dog down shortly after the last chapter's Note was posted and I ... needed some personal time. I'm also STILL looking for an apartment, but that's whatever. You're not here to listen to my life's problems ouo 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I'll try and get the next one posted in a more agreeable timeframe! BTW, There is a hidden game reference in this chapter! Tell me what it is and I'll give you a shout-out in the next one! <3 
> 
> ~Coffie


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